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My inner geek has always wanted a high-tech toilet, a plumbed floor, and a liquid crystal window.* *And my inner carpenter has always wanted lots of wood with Japanese-style joinery, paper screens, etc.* *But, in the end, my practical, cheap, and lazy sensibilities came through during our last bathroom remodel.* *Simple, clean lines, inexpensive, robust, and water-resistant!
What's the MTBF for these high-tech Japanese baths?* *Do you need an IT guy in the stall next to you to keep it running?
Edit: supposedly, there's a new generation of electrochromic windows that should be better than the liquid crystal gadget. At some point, I will no longer be able to resist one. We have an ocean view from our tub, and my wife wanted blinds on the window for privacy! Of course, she got her blinds, but as soon as Home Depot starts carrying EC windows, they're gone!
I also want bathrooms that are entirely waterproof. To clean it, you close the door, flick on a switch, and the whole thing gets sprayed down and then blown dried.
__________________ .
No more lawyer stuff, no more political stuff, so no more CYA
We stayed with some Japanese friends a few months ago. First, you NEVER get into the tub without taking a complete shower first. The shower and tub are in the same room - no shower stall, the room is the shower area. The whole room is water proof with a drain in the floor. You sit in a small stool to wash, scrubbing every inch. Then, you rinse and get into the tub to soak, not wash. The same water stays in the tub all day and everyone in the house, guests and family, use the same water to soak in. Our Japanese friends would soak 3 or 4 times a day.
The next morning, the old tub water is used to wash clothes. A hose drains the tub water into the washing machine.
If you ever get a chance, go to a Japanese ryokan. These are traditional Japanese Inns, usually with onsens (natural hot springs). We have been fortunate enough to go to several. My fantasy bathroom would have to be an onsen....
The same water stays in the tub all day and everyone in the house, guests and family, use the same water to soak in. Our Japanese friends would soak 3 or 4 times a day.
ummm, as you can guess, I tried to be the first in the tub every day.
The real 'ewww' is when you eat a traditional Japanese meal. Nothing is familiar. Being adventurous, I tried a lot of things. Eel, many kinds of raw fish, bulbs, strange pickles. But I yearned for a Big Mac by the time we left.
Japan is an amazing and wonderful place to visit. Speaking of bathrooms, the toilets seem to be either those great high tech toilets or a hole with handholds and you squat. I used the squat one on the bullet train - what a 'rush'!!!
Early-Retirement.org Founder Developer of FIRECalc
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,841
Re: Your Fantasy Bathroom
I apologize in advance...* *
There are fantasy bathrooms, and nightmares...
Here's a photo from one of the last outings before we left the Middle East... (and no, I don't customarily take such photos -- just wanted a reminder of what I was leaving behind...)
This was in an oasis town about 2 hours south of where we lived. This was comparatively clean, as public facilities go.
And there is no discussion of putting the seat up or down...
__________________ Often uninformed, seldom undecided.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain
DanTien,
You have entirely too much time on your hands.
Now that I have my wireless notebook I can multi-task doing more of pretty much nothing all day sitting in many different places... ...can you guess where I was during the first post of this topic?
I always knew there was a reason I don't travel out of the US (besides refusing to fly) and dory36 just verified that for me. Some bathrooms/facilites in the US are bad enough.
C__
__________________ Dogs aren't our whole lives, but they make our lives whole. - Roger Caras
My bath/shower room is similar to the one mikew describes (same maker, in fact). It looks pretty much like this:
but without the sliding glass doors to the outside. As Repairmanjack notes, the shower area where you get clean is to the right of the soaker tub.
There is a control system which automatically fills the tub to the desired depth and temperature (and which can have a different programmed temperature from the shower water), the shower area has the Thermo-floor to prevent cold footsies in the winter, and the large tub comfortably fits parent and child (children generally don't bathe alone in Japan):
I love that bath.
We did not get the automatic hose-to-the-washer option -- doing the bucket brigade thing is our bit of LBYM. The washer is in the adjacent room, with the sink, so it is not a big deal.
Our toilet, in its own room, looks pretty much like this:
Features: bidet (front or back, as desired) with adjustable strength, temperature and nozzle motion, heated toilet seat, and hand-washing faucet and sink built into the top of the tank. We did not get the optional automatic electronic flush system.
Have to say that bathrooms are one of the best things about living in Japan.
Ya know, Dory, as a former Auxiliaries Officer (in charge of toilets & sanitary tanks) I didn't think anything could make me go eeeeeewwwww... I was wrong!
__________________ *
Co-author (with my daughter) of “Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next Generation Financial Independence.”
Author of the book written on E-R.org: "The Military Guide to Financial Independence and Retirement."
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Our master bath has a double vanity, toilet, soaker tub (no jets, but I wouldn't use them anyway since I usually take a book with me and the jets are too loud), and a large shower. The room itself is as large as my shared bedroom growing up. There is some tile work and vinyl flooring. To make it my dream bath I would need a heated tile floor and a tiled shower instead of the "ready made" one that is set in there.
__________________ Yelnad --"What you're paying for is an education, not a room at the Sheraton,and sometimes that education is uncomfortable."- Jim Terhune, Dean of Student Affairs, Colgate University
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...can you guess where I was during the first post of this topic?
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